Surrogate decision making of chemotherapy consent: do we really provide informed consent of chemotherapy for patients?

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Despite increased demand for cancer patient’s to make their own decisions based on an adequate understanding of what is involved in chemotherapy, the primary signing agent and the reasons for surrogate signing have not been appropriately evaluated. METHODS: The ethics committee of the palliative medicine subgroup of the Korean Cancer Study Group designed this study and solid cancer patients to whom chemotherapy was offered, from seven institutions, were evaluated. The details relating to surrogate’s signing of chemotherapy consent were evaluated. Then, we analyzed the factors associated with surrogate’s signing according to patient’s demographics and characteristics related to chemotherapy consent. RESULTS: Surrogate’s signing was noted for 20.7% (84/405) of patient and over half of surrogate signings were performed by the patients’ son or daughter (60.7%). Two main reasons for surrogate signing were patient’s incapacity (34.5%) and taking over authorization from patients (33.3%). The factors associated with more frequent surrogate’s signing were absence of spouse, lower education level, outpatient, and when residents played a role as a principle provider of chemotherapy consent. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests the lack of patients’ own decision making for chemotherapy in some situations. This ethical dilemma must be considered for adequately informed decision making for chemotherapy while ensuring the patients’ autonomy is maintained.